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Oscailt 3.x Design Document

Design Document Version 1.1

Table of Contents

• 1. Introduction
  • 1.1 How To Read This Document
  • 1.2 Understanding Oscailt For Programmers
• 2. Design Overview
  • 2.1 The Main Layers of Oscailt
  • 2.2 The Main Functional Blocks
  • 2.3 Oscailt 3.x Architecture
    • 2.3.1 Meta Data Management System
    • 2.3.2 Optimised Runtime Display System
    • 2.3.3 XML Meta Data Object Set
• 3. Display Overview
  • 3.1 Introduction
  • 3.2 Basic Layout
  • 3.3 Page Rendering
    • 3.3.1 Output Buffering and Oscailt
• 4. Design Details
  • 4.1 Layout, Module and Element Configuration
    • 4.1.1 How and Where Elements, Modules and Layouts are Implemented
    • 4.1.2 Storage of the Elements, Modules and Layouts Objects
  • 4.2 Handling of URL Requests
    • 4.2.1 Use of Oscailt Friendly URLs
    • 4.2.2 Implementation of Oscailt Friendly URLs
    • 4.2.3 Limitations of Oscailt Friendly URLs
  • 4.3 The Code Cache
    • 4.3.1 Building the Code Cache
    • 4.3.2 File Organistation in the Code Cache
      • 4.3.2.1 Organistation by Language
  • 4.4 More on Handling Requests and the Code Cache
    • 4.4.1 Execution of index.php and Loading of Code Cache Objects
      • 4.4.1.1 First Cached File: Displayable Runtime Module
      • 4.4.1.2 Second Cached File: Page Layout Module
    • 4.4.2 Execution Sequence for a Request in Live (Non Cached) Mode
  • 4.5 File Organisation
  • 4.6 Classes and Class Hierarchy
    • 4.6.1 Runtime Display type Classes
    • 4.6.2 More about Runtime Classes and Core Oscailt Classes
    • 4.6.3 Class Tree for the Abstract Indy Classes
    • 4.6.4 The IndyBasicObject Class and It's Derivatives
      • 4.6.4.1 The IndyListObject Class and It's Derivatives
      • 4.6.4.2 The IndySiteModuleObject Class and It's Derivatives
    • 4.6.5 The IndyObjectManager Class
      • 4.6.5.1 Usage of indyObjectManager by index.php
      • 4.6.5.2 Usage of indyObjectManager by admin.php
    • 4.6.6 The IndyObjectActionRequest Class
    • 4.6.7 The Classes in the indydataclasses Directory
    • 4.6.8 The ItemAction Class and Editor Options
    • 4.6.9 Core Functionality Classes from Oscailt 2x
  • 4.7 Configuration within Oscailt
    • 4.7.1 Config Options and Files
    • 4.7.2 Changes to attachments.php
    • 4.7.3 Changes to permissions.php
  • 4.8 The Oscailt Database
    • 4.8.1 Database Connect and Commits
    • 4.8.2 List of Oscailt Database Tables
  • 4.9 Edit Locks
  • 4.10 Controlling Use of HTML and Other Tags in Input
  • 4.11 Use of JavaScript in Oscailt
• 5. The Admin Functionality Explained
  • 5.1 Admin.php Code Execution Sequence
    • 5.1.1 Main Classes Used
  • 5.2 Admin XML Files
    • 5.2.1 More about the XML Files
  • 5.3 Basic Admin Files
    • 5.3.1 Miscellaneous Files
      • 5.3.1.1 The Adminfooter.inc File
  • 5.4 Edit Topics, Regions, Types and Languages
  • 5.5 The IP Monitor
  • 5.6 IP Banning
  • 5.7 Editor Status and Messaging
• 6. Language Translation
  • 6.1 Definiting Languages in Oscailt
  • 6.2 Master Pages, Language Specific Pages: How to Translate Oscailt Public Pages
    • 6.2.1 Default Language
  • 6.3 How to Translate Oscailt Administration Pages
    • 6.3.1 Language Versions of Administration Layout Pages
  • 6.4 General Language Support Background
  • 6.5 Unicode Support
  • 6.6 Text Not Easily Translated
• 7. Log Files
  • 7.1 sitelog.txt
  • 7.2 actionlog.txt
  • 7.3 securitylog.txt
  • 7.4 spamlog.txt
  • 7.5 reported_post.txt
  • 7.6 spamlog_contact.txt
• 8. Caching and the QueryCache Class
  • 8.1 The QueryCache Class
    • 8.1.1 Database Cache
    • 8.1.2 Database Connection(s)
    • 8.1.3 Limitations of the Database Cache
    • 8.1.4 Limitations: Update
  • 8.2 The Image Cache
  • 8.3 Other Caches Used by Oscailt
• 9. Editor Permissions and Roles
  • 9.1 Important Files for Permissions and Roles
  • 9.2 Data for Permissions and Roles
  • 9.3 Role Permissions
    • 9.3.1 Code Changes and Permission Updates
  • 9.4 Permissions in Action
• 10. Module Specifics
  • 10.1 Contact Form including Reported Posts
    • 10.1.1 Reported Posts
  • 10.2 The Publish Form
    • 10.2.1 Overview
    • 10.2.2 Components
    • 10.2.3 Publish Processing
  • 10.3 Events and Events Display
    • 10.3.1 Overview
    • 10.3.2 Displaying Events
      • 10.3.2.1 Core Files for Event Functionality
    • 10.3.3 Events and the Publish Form
• 11. Changing Code and Adding New Functionality
  • 11.1 Overview
  • 11.2 Process to Follow
  • 11.3 Points to Consider
• 12. Exports and Dump Files
• 13. Use of Style Sheets in Oscailt
  • 13.1 Overview
• 14. Appendix A - Some Background on Objects, Classes, Functions and Methods
  • 14.1 Introduction
  • 14.2 Classes and Objects
  • 14.3 Functions and Methods
    • 14.3.1 Syntax and Conventions
  • 14.4 Object Data
  • 14.5 Class Inheritance
• 15. Appendix B - Some Resources
  • 15.1 PHP Manual
  • 15.2 Editor Tool
  • 15.3 File Difference and Merge Tools for Windows
  • 15.4 Development Environment Tool
  • 15.5 CVS Source Control
  • 15.6 Unicode and UTF-8

Last updated: Nov 2012